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Businesses have adapted to several important technology driven waves of change in societies, starting from lean revolution around 1970s, the outsourcing possibilities that offered new business models to develop in the 1990s and the automation that penetrated in the 2000s. The latest of these trends is the integration of cyber-physical systems such as use of internet of things (IoT) to increase revenue and drive cost reductions (Rymaszewska et al., 2017). It also facilitates both consumer driven markets and industry 4.0 powered by innovative operational technologies (OT) of which IoTs are a part. It allows for manufacturing processes and operations to assimilate and develop a flexible, smart, cost effective, eco-friendly and socially responsible production ecosystem (Metallo et al., 2018; Oesterreich & Teuteberg, 2016; Strazdins & Wang, 2015). However, there is a lack of built-in security in cyber-physical systems, thus security and privacy issues loom high in the IoT domain. It can result in unauthorized access to services and data, exposure of key enterprise elements, compromise private data, be prone to denial of services, backdoors and malwares, as well as face loss or damage to critical human resource infrastructure. Thus, before enterprises leverage IoT and integrate it into their business models or incorporate them as a strategic resource in human resource management, they must be prepared to handle two critical aspects. First, protecting communication through IoTs and second, managing security configurations and credentials (Pfaff, 2020). Knowledge about these aspects contributes to bridging the technical deficiencies often seen amongst human resource professionals.
Recent research also project that human resource domains will be highly influenced by IoTs, but they can also influence in bring about positive change within organizations due to IoTs. Thus, human resources are impacted by IoT related issues and can play various roles such as a potential change agents, a change drivers and most importantly as a strategic partners. As a change agent, human resources are primarily responsible for how communication, privacy and security issues are managed between employees and mediated systems. They also provide the best practices for better organisational communication, privacy and security (Strohmeier, 2020). As a change driver, human resource functions may itself be impacted by IoTs. Prior studies project that a combination of e-HRM with IoTs have wide applications for implementing policies, strategies, and practices within the organization in five crucial areas of e-Selection, e-Recruitment, e-Performance, e-Compensation, and e-Learning (Nasar, et al., 2020). However, as a strategic partner, they need to build their dynamic capability and knowledge base in order to adapt to the ever changing technological environment caused by industry 4.0 trends. This requires them to constantly update their technical knowledge to overcome the constant state of deficit they find themselves in the face of IoT related challenges to effectively contribute at the strategic levels in the organizations. Thus, in order to successfully make this expected transition from a traditional operational function to a strategic function within industry 4.0 oriented organizations (Hecklau et al., 2016) human resource professional need to bridge this technical gap with regard the management of privacy and security challenges in IoT.
They predict that there will be over 75.44 billion IoT devices worldwide by 2025 and their role in cyber-physical systems gives rise to several important security concerns1. Internet of Things or (IoT) security and privacy is a trend-setting research area that attracts academic, industrial, and government researchers. Attacks on IoT systems are fast and simple to carry out at the same time there is a rapid expansion of IoT devices in the market, from fitness to relators, making this issue relevant and time sensitive.